1. Field of Invention
The current invention relates generally to apparatus, systems and methods for charging and/or supplying power to electronic items. More particularly, the apparatus, systems and methods relate to charging and/or supplying power to electronic items on display in a commercial setting. Specifically, the apparatus, systems and methods provide for charging and/or supplying power to electronic items with the use of dual microcontrollers with one of the controllers reading a charge adapter to determine the required voltage.
2. Description of Related Art
Merchants often desire displaying powered-up electronic devices to consumers so that the consumers can handle and explore the various functions of different electronic devices. For example, a merchant may wish to display a variety of different cellular phones so that consumers can handle and evaluate the functionality of each phone. Alternatively, merchants may desire displaying cameras, computer-related devices, electronic games and the like powered-up to allow the handling and exploration of these devices.
A display that exhibits electronic items will often show several different electronic items. Traditional power supplies for these types of displays would provide a central power supply that would supply power to each electronic device through a corresponding power cable attached between each electronic device and the central power supply. The central power supply in general supplied one main voltage level to each power cable so that each electronic device needed to be able to accept the same voltage level. Alternatively, voltage converters could be used to convert the main voltage to different voltage levels; however, converters add substantial cost to the charging system and take up additional space. Also, today's electronic devices often require large currents, increasing the voltage loss in the power cable and connectors, resulting in a significant difference between the voltage supplied by the power supply and what is expected by the electronic device. What is needed is a better way to supply power to electronic items on display in a commercial setting.